Set up the opportunity for providers to get grants, but appropriation was not made

May get appropriation in the future

Money from appropriation may go to help a failing dam

AT&T likes the grant because they are able to apply

Not intended for overbuild; is for un-served areas

Broadband Task Force

Has disbanded

Looked @ deployment at the time

Sees Connect Kentucky as the task force (views task force as a child of legislative process)

Did good job of discussing issues @ margin and bringing together legislators

Was put in place as an accountability measure

Relationship w/ Wild Blue

Does not know any details

Partnering w/ them for deployment opportunities

In areas where AT&T is not deploying, WildBlue is the provider

Connect Kentucky is working to bring down the cost via partnership

KEN

Coordinating partner w/ KIH2

Schools were a part of KIH2

There was a lot of work done to get connections out to each school district as part of KIH2

Worked to get the infrastructure out there

17 Partners coming together because of KIH(1)

Which partner gets which school is dependent on ILEC

What recommendations do you have for us?

Removing regulatory barriers to allowing providers to come in and offer service

Did not want to have to re-sell broadband to CLEC---shares POTS but didn’t want to sell DSLAM access

Infrastructure is in place and seeing if there is an issue—the question is that is the broadband connectivity enough and is it affordable?

A lot of work has been done and continues to be done to spur deployment

Another avenue is in Science, Engineering and Math—Kentucky has entities has content and then to build broadband out using Science and math as a driver, which will in turn allow the libraries to be more attractive

Mark David Gross Chairmen Kentucky Public Service Commission

Legislation

2 or 3 years ago a bill was passed to de-regulate broadband provisions from the commission’s jurisdiction

Proceeding session there was a deal that de-regulated local telephone service

Bills to de-regulate telecommunications (much less than 3 ½ years ago)

Issue: PSC does not reg. cable so telephone argued that they are regulated but cable is not

Impact

De-reg of broadband has been helpful in getting broadband deployment in the state

Telcos said they couldn’t deploy because of PSC

To get de-reg, the ILECs would have to provision broadband in rural

Doesn’t think 92% of deployment w/out de-regulation

Bell South was able to sell investment to corporate b/c then they wouldn’t need to share facilities

Thinks they have done a good job, but there are pockets that are unserved

Wife (school board) says that usage by children is great!

How much oversight do you have?

Telcos

Virtually none

They ask for some reporting, which they give freely

Could not have reporting requirement

Complaints & advertising oversight

Regulates the basic phone service with price (basic local service w/ no frills) approx 20-25%

De-reg has not increased complaints

Fully regulate the power companies for their power utilities

But not for broadband

Duke KY has expressed interest & had pilot project of broadband over powerlines

In some rural areas, the public utilities offer cable

Power company bill

Bill to allow power companies to drive broadband

Main purpose: sell propane and other services (not broadband)

Problem in his mind is that getting broadband in the last 8% of the state where the population density is low, there is a fixed, low income preventing them from adopting

Has concerns and doubts that the last 8% will be completed

Thinks that the wireless from DCI is interesting but not sure if wireless will be a viable solution for eastern KY

How he characterized state of broadband:

Vastly improved since 2004

Gets better each month

Thinks it will be interesting to see how close to 100% they actually get

High-speed (anything but dial-up)…thinks most can get it

Been happy w/ CK and telephone providers

Pleasantly surprised—though they were being lied to about de-reg promises

Broadband task force appointed by legislator w/ cross-section of people to monitor what the telcos were doing to ensure compliance

Issued a report and not sure if it is still around

Knew that they must follow through in order to get land line de-reg

KEN

Not involved in KEN

Had not even heard of the project

Success factors of 92%

The entities that have had the abilities to deploy broadband has been freed up by decision maker (e.g. corporate) that the numbers work. Even though the cost is high, they can make it up in some of the more urban areas to subsidize this high cost

Skeptical of broadband de-reg, but is now a supporter

The hue and cry of folks in rural Kentucky who want what their cousins in urban areas has

Thinks the companies have been responsive to this cry—they want to make profit and if it makes sense, they will deploy

Governor has done a good job of getting the word out and hammering the issue

The public is aware of it b/c the governor has said it, president says it and federal people say it

Barriers

Geography

Socio-economic status & abilities

Does not want or can not afford the connection

These people are the ones libraries should be attracting

Bill and Melinda Gates Interventions

Wondering if there would be some way to piggy back off of access that is already in the community

College professor @ SE Community College…wanted high speed @ home and couldn’t get it…lived within several hundred yards of fiber

Wonders if there could be greater collaboration between public libraries and other public institutions

John Higginbotham

John is the superintendent of the Frankfort plant board that provides cable TV, telecom, water, power, Internet, and security services.

40 municipal electric companies (12 or 13 that is in the cable/telcom)

They have been on the leading edge of broadband; leaving the private sector behind

Important Factors that are affecting broadband deployment

Cost of upgrading equipment was large (only 512K until the new equipment was in place

Now they need to go even faster

Realized that they needed to make broadband available to library after library board was planning to build their new building

2 Mb for $500 /month & cable for $100 / month

Have a few hundred homes left to wire

Biggest Barrier to Broadband

Cost and ability to make revenue back on the expenditure

Low population density

Reaching some of the really rural areas (nearly $10,000/mile to wire)

Topography of the county is large

Adelphia (now bought by Time Warner) did not pay for upgrades to infrastructure

Recommendations for Gates foundation

Will email us later

Interface with the library

Kirk Poling

Kirk works for Insight Communications, the largest cable company in Kentucky, but has only been with the company for 6 months. Insight is a privately held company (no public scrutiny).

Has worked for many years on broadband deployment to various

Trying to figure out how to get into the business market

$1 Billion of revenue every year (7th largest)

Is looking for a way to build out the fiber to business and figure out how to build infrastructure

Trying to determine where there is a need (serves KY, IL, IN and OH)

Do you serve libraries?

They do have some libraries—do not have exact numbers

Active in K12 space and is working on Higher Ed

The factors that go into business decisions

Build it they will come (attitude of the early 2000s), but ineffective

Do not build it but hope they will come is the new attitude

His philosophy is that it is important to look into both sides of the equation

Want to quantify ROI on 12-36 months

Looks at each situation case by case

Fiber to the business; schools, universities, and libs (not to the home)

Trying to figure out how to spread out the up-front costs for deployment

No plans for FTTH deployment

B&M Gates interventions

I don’t know

IF you have value-added resource and application would be great

Partner w/ public service organization

Lack of dollars and cents (although cost of bandwidth is dropping)

Look at each opportunity to determine feasibility

What do you think of CK?

Great initiative (let’s get w/ the companies to get deployment)

Tying to get Insight involved in CK activities

Thinks that Insight is a good way to deploy broadband ($1 billion of revenue to spend)

Great to help consumers and now branching out to business

David Hemingway

David is a Senior Account Executive at Digital Connections, Inc. (a infrastructure company)

What is DCI?

Carrier to ISP is not a function they normally have fulfilled

DCI started as a data networking company in 1992

@ the time that frame relay was taking hold

Survived the crash

Stumbled onto Connect Kentucky

Had done several wireless integrations

Putting together 7 conty wi-fi network

Hooking up the service is now done w/ a partner

Synergy is providing the Internet connectivity, hooking up, marketing and retailing of the service

DCI provides the access points and backhaul

900 MHz spectrum is used (non line of site and unlicensed)

looked @ 700 MHz, but is owned by someone who does not want to lease to DCI

Will lease the tower from Crown Castle (a tower management company)

Has a radio to go out to customers and then a separate radio to act as a back haul

2600 sq mi

Finish up deployment by the end of the year (2007)

Speeds

512k down (@29.95) to 2.5 Mb down

Maximum speed is somewhere 3.0 Mb

Do you have to provide services to some public entitites?

10% rebate has to go back to people helping to fund portions of the network

Offer a free hotspot to all counties as part of the contract (all bandwidth is free)

Taking customers away?

Only satellite people for the most part (in most cases)

There are places where there will be overlap w/ wire companies

Is this service going well?

Not deployed yet

Have completed beta test that exceeded expectations

Moving forward on more deployment

Other providers seem to be done well

46 WISPs in Indiana using Motorola equipment that they will be using

20-25 miles is max (going to go to 10 mi) $85,000 per tower

Profitable @ 5400 in seven counties (13-15% consumers in the county)

B&M Gates Foundation

Maybe some uses for libraries

Follow-ups

Samantha Finke @ ConnectKY

As far as the success factor I would have to say that I think the biggest reason Kentucky has been successful has been the drive of our local communities and ConnectKentucky’s grass roots efforts. We are also lucky to have several legislators who are very passionate about seeing Kentucky succeed and who recognize the role that technology, particularly broadband access, plays into that success. Thus, I don’t think our success can be attributed to any one thing – instead I think the combination of public, private and local efforts has made many folks more aware of technology and the need to build infrastructure and implement applications to support growth. Kentucky is by no means perfect but we are definitely making great strides in the availability, awareness and adoption of technology!

I keep hearing the statement Nancy made about how technology centers are just not necessary in the presence of libraries and think that was a GREAT point. I think one thing that we all need to advocate at the state and local level, particularly in Kentucky, is getting people to recognize that. I agree there is no point in wasting more resources to build something in addition to what already exists in libraries. Instead, the resources that have been allocated for technology centers and the like should be put into libraries to enable them to serve as the learning/technological center of the community – it just makes the most sense. This way both the libraries and their communities will benefit. Also, with the level of broadband connectivity that now exists in KY, I think it would be very easy to reinforce libraries as the centerpiece of the community again. In recent years I think that libraries have unfortunately been neglected by states. As a result, my speculation is that those that aren’t up-to-date with the technological age have probably been disregarded by some, whereas those that are up-to-date with technology have probably seen a resurgence in activity – now that is just pure speculation on my part. In any case, technology is definitely going to play a major role in the future of libraries. I think they definitely should be the hub of the community and I see interactive learning classes, programs, and such to be huge opportunities for libraries. I feel very strongly that Kentucky could use funds from the Gate’s Foundation to boost libraries with technological and innovative learning programs, which in turn would draw more of the community in and bring libraries back to the stage they belong – a centerpiece for the community.